Leela Roy

Infobox revolution biography
name=Leela Nag
alternate name= Leelaboti Roy
lived=21 October 1900-11 June 1970


dateofbirth=birth date|1900|10|21
placeofbirth=Goyalpara, Aasham, British India
dateofdeath=death date and age|1970|6|11|1900|10|21 [শতকন্ঠ-১৯৯৮-৯৯, শেরে বাংলা বালিকা মহাবিদ্যালয়]
placeofdeath=Kolkata, India
offices=
organizations=
movement= Indian Independence Movement

Leela Roy née Nag ( _bn. লীলা রায়) (1900-1970), was a radical leftist Indian politician and reformer, and a close associate of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

Family

She was born into an upper middle class Bengali Kayastha family in Sylhet in Bengal (now in Bangladesh) and educated at the Bethune College in Calcutta, graduating with a gold medal in English. She fought with university authorities and became the first woman to be admitted to the University of Dhaka and earned her M.A. degree.

ocial work

She threw herself into social work and the question of education for girls, starting the second girls school in Dhaka. She encouraged girls learning skills and receiving vocational training and emphasized on the need to learn martial arts to defend themselves. Over the years, she set up a number of schools and institutes for women. She met Netaji Subhash Bose When he was leading the relief action after the 1921 Bengal Floods, Smt. Leela Nag, then a student of the Dhaka University, was instrumental in forming the 'Dhaka Women's committee and in that capacity raised donations and relief goods to help Netaji.

In 1931, she began publishing Jayasree, the first magazine edited and managed by wond wholly contributed by women writers. It received the blessings of many eminent personalities including Rabindranath Tagore,who suggested its name.

Politics

Leela Nag formed a rebellion organization called "Dipali Shongho" where combat training were given. Pritilata Waddedar took courses from there. She took part in the Civil Disobedience Movement and was imprisoned for six years. In 1938, she was nominated by Congress President, Subhas Chandra Bose to the National Planning Committee of the Congress. In 1939 she married Anilchandra Roy. On Bose's resignation from the Congress, the couple joined him in the Forward Bloc.

In 1941, when there was a serious outburst of communal rioting in Dhaka, she along with Sarat Chandra Bose formed the Unity Board and National Service Brigade. In 1942, during the Quit India Movement both she and her husband were arrested and her magazine was forced to cease. On her release in 1946, she was elected to the Constituent Assembly of India.

During the partition violence, she joined Gandhi in Noakhali. Even before Gandhiji reached there, she opened a relief center and rescued 400 women after touring on foot 90 miles in just six days. After the Partition of India, she ran homes in Calcutta for destitute and abandoned women and tried to help refugees from East Bengal.

References